Shocking And Disappointing News Item!!; Popular Genealogy TV Show “Who Do You Think You Are?” On NBC Will Be Cancelled And Will Not Have New Episodes For 2013

To say the least, I am shocked over just discovering the news that the popular Genealogy TV show on NBC will no longer be on the air! It is not being renewed for 2013.

I am shocked!

It seemed to me to that it began hitting its stride. I thought it was considered successful because it actually delivered more episodes in 2012 than it had previously delivered in it two previous seasons.

What follows in Italics after the separator is the text from Dick Eastman’s May 13, 2012 blog post on the comments provided by Ancestry.com upon hearing the news of the cancellation. Ancestry.com was a major advertiser on the program. Ancestry.com was emphasized throughout the show as the stars began their online search efforts using Ancestry.com.

PROVO, Utah, May 13, 2012 — Ancestry.com Inc., the world’s largest online family history resource, today commented on NBC’s decision not to renew the Who Do You Think You Are? television series for a fourth season.

“We want to thank NBC for their support of this terrific series, which over the last three years has inspired many viewers to follow their passion to learn more about who they are and where they come from,” said Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of Ancestry.com. “We have a great partnership with the show’s producers, Is or Isn’t Entertainment and Shed Media, and we look forward to exploring other avenues of distribution.”

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. is the world’s largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

So it is that all good things come to an end. It just seemed we were getting comfortable with knowing this show was going to be on Friday evenings and we had something to look forward to. Some shows were outstanding. Some shows were boring and lacked and insight into genealogical research. Maybe inconsistency was the death knell for the show. Overall, I always got something out of each show just knowing that genealogical pursuit received such visibility via an actual TV show!

There is only one more original episode scheduled to appear on Friday evening, May 18, 2012. Paula Deen will be showcased in the series finale.

It still hard for me to believe that more new episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?” will be no more.

5 responses to “Shocking And Disappointing News Item!!; Popular Genealogy TV Show “Who Do You Think You Are?” On NBC Will Be Cancelled And Will Not Have New Episodes For 2013”

As usual when a network finally airs an interesting and intelligent program, it is cancelled. It seems American television continues to be geared to the lowest common denominator, ie to “dumb down” everything. ie The Jersey Shore, the Kardashians, Jersylicious….WTF!!!!!

Hopefully another network will pick up Who do you think you are for 2013

It figures that if it is not a show with nonsense it is canned. I wish that the genealogy community has a tv channel all their own, that would give us a chance to find our relatives and learn about the history of those we never knew. I love comedies, but this show was so interesting and I really looked forward to watching it. I am very disappointed too in the network. Do they think that everyone at home on a Friday night is wanting to watch frivilous tv? Actually the young people are out and their parents and grandparents are the ones at home.